Because Democracy is Not Free — we all have to work at it
Today, a reader sent me a timely piece from the upcoming Harvard Law & Policy Review journal, Winter 2009. In, “Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs in Federal Court: From Bad to Worse?” authors Kevin M. Clermont & Stewart J. Schwab write about case trends for civil rights dockets brought before the federal court. They conclude that the [...]
I wasn’t sure whether this story belonged on an education web page, or government accountability. After some thought, I realized that most kids already know this, so here it is: From Mark Halperin’s The Page: After the press conference at Dodge Academy, President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden went upstairs for a 15 minute meeting with a [...]
For eight years, OSC was the antithesis of its mission, working feverently to dissuade whistleblowers from blowing the whistle, and keeping partisan politics partisan. Now, it wants you to know it should be allowed to keep its job. It has filed a Hatch Act Violation — in a race that was won in 2006. A little [...]
Revisiting an older post on MSPB initial filings by Agency, an observant reader noted that although more than 25 percent of all Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) non-OPM claims were made by postal workers, United States Postal Service (USPS) employees have greater appeal restrictions. Here’s the citation. According to this section of the U.S. Code, appellants must be non-probationary preference-eligible [...]
It took two hours, but I read all of The Center for Public Integrity’s (CPI) Broken Government: An Examination of 128 Executive Branch Failures since 2000. It was well worth my time. The first two pages captured the heart of the piece, with the following points noted: Many of the failings are tied to Bush appointees [...]
This article from the Washington Post is a must-read primer for anyone interested in how whistleblowers will be regarded in the new administration. Joe Davidson, in his Federal Diary, writes: Whistleblowers in the federal government and those who work to protect them see a longtime friend in the next president. “Attorney Obama and Senator Obama [...]
The Center for Public Integrity has just released its report on “Broken Government: an assessment of 128 executive branch failures since 2000.” The Washington Post’s Federal Eye has excerpted passages from the document, like the one below: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: “A backlog in cases and increasing delays” have plagued the agency. “EEOC had 2,158 [...]
ABC News’ Brian Ross is reporting that Senate Candidate 5 is Jesse Jackson Jr. Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous “Senate Candidate No. 5″ whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News. Also in [...]
Latest: Emanuel source says, “No.” ========== Huffington Post is reporting that it may have been Rahm Emanuel who blew the whistle on Blagojevich. The whole story is extremely intriguing — I’d recommend reading TPMMuckraker (here) as the story unfolds. TPM has the most information at this point, including the likely names of the Senate candidates redacted from the Criminal [...]
The Smoking Gun has a copy of the FBI Affidavit on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s charges of corruption. Attached to the U.S. District Court complaint is an FBI affidavit, excerpted below, alleging that Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.” [...]